Afghanistan

My friend Adam Holloway MP, is a member of the Defence Select Committee, a former Captain in the Grenadier Guards and often visits Afghanistan at his own expense. 

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• We support the mission in Afghanistan. But more needs to be done to set out and explain the right strategy in Afghanistan. The strategy must be tightly defined, hard-headed and realistic. We need to be absolutely clear about what our mission should be: it is about security and it is to deny the ability of Al-Qaeda to have bases in Afghanistan.
• We have to be frank about the difficulties and the dangers in Afghanistan. One is that our forces do not have enough helicopters. A key reason for this is the Government’s lack of forward planning. In 2004, when British troops were deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the Government decided to reduce the helicopter budget.
• We must also have an honest debate about the situation up until today. Gordon Brown claims there was a 60 per cent increase in the number of helicopters, but we had a 100 per cent increase in the number of troops. What is it that stops Gordon Brown admitting when clear mistakes have been made? Why won’t he give a simple, honest answer to a simple, honest question?

Relevant Background

• Deaths in Afghanistan. 16 personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since 1 July. Of these, six personnel were killed on the same day – Friday 10 July. The total of British forces killed in Afghanistan is now 185 and rising by the day.
• Gordon Brown pledges to review troop numbers. On 13 July 2009, Gordon Brown made a statement to the House of Commons.He said that the Government would ‘review that commitment [the 700 extra troops announced in April] after the Afghan elections, with the advice of our commanders and in discussion with our allies’. This review is to see whether the additional commitment of 700 troops should remain in Afghanistan (Hansard, 13 July 2009, Col.23).
• Controversy over Vehicles. The recent deaths, including that of Lt. Col. Rupert Thorneloe, commander of the Welsh Guards, have caused concern among military commentators and the media over the suitability of some of the armoured vehicles used in Afghanistan, and their vulnerability to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) (Daily Telegraph, 4 July 2009).
• Controversy over Helicopters. One way of avoiding a ground Improvised Explosive Device attack is to manoeuvre by helicopter. But key military commentators and ex-military figures have expressed concern that there are not enough helicopters in Afghanistan (see section on military commanders). At Prime Minister’s Questions on 15 July, David Cameron questioned Gordon Brown on the reason for these shortages. Gordon Brown claimed that the Government is now increasing helicopter flying hours and is in the process of providing more helicopters.

• Defence Committee Report. On 16 July, the Defence Select Committee published a report into helicopter capability. It condemned the shortage of helicopters in Afghanistan, saying that it has restricted the ability of British forces to undertake important operations. It also suggested that a larger helicopter fleet would allow troops to be airlifted into battle rather than risk lives carrying out operations on foot. The Committee rejected claims that an increase in flying hours overcomes the problems, as a helicopter can only be in one place at one time. The Committee also questioned the cost-effectiveness of the Government’s decision to refurbish old Puma and Sea King helicopters (House of Commons Defence Committee, Helicopter Capability, 16 July 2009, Session 2008-9, HC 434).

• Dannatt Comments. On 15 July 2009, the outgoing Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said, ‘As I have said before, we can have effect where we have boots on the ground. I don't mind whether the feet in those boots are British, American or Afghan, but we need more to have the persistent effect to give the people [of Helmand] confidence in us. That is the top line and the bottom line (BBC News Online, 15 July 2009).

On 16 July, TheDaily Telegraph revealed that as General Dannatt visited British troops in Sangin, he had to travel in an American Black Hawk helicopter. When asked about his travel arrangements, Gen. Dannatt replied: ‘self-evidently... if I moved in an American helicopter it's because I haven't got a British helicopter’. General Dannatt is on his final visit to Afghanistan before he retires next month.

On 17 July, General Dannatt said that he is compiling a ‘shopping list’ of things that are needed for the operations in Afghanistan – including surveillance and intelligence equipment (BBC News Online, 17 July 2009). Also on 17 July, it was reported that Labour ministers have threatened to tarnish General Dannatt’s reputation, and that they will consider him ‘fair game’ once he has stepped down as head of the Army (The Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2009)

• Troop Requests. The media have reported that military commanders had requested an additional 2,000 troops for Afghanistan. But Gordon Brown decided in April that only 700 were to be deployed for the elections as this was the cheapest option (The Sunday Times, 12 July 2009).Giving evidence to the House of Commons Liaison Committee on 16 July, Gordon Brown refused to answer directly questions about whether military commanders had requested an extra 2,000 troops (Press Association, 16 July 2009).
• Poll: public split over Afghanistan. A survey carried out by the BBC has found that support for the war in Afghanistan is increasing. The poll of 1,000 adults, conducted as news of the casualties emerged, found 46 per cent backed the British operation in Afghanistan while 47 per cent opposed it. A similar poll in 2006 found 31 per cent backed the UK's action while 53 per cent opposed it (BBC News Online, 13 July 2009).
• Comments by Senior Ex-Military Figures

• Lord Guthrie (Former Chief of the Defence Staff). ‘As far as helicopters are concerned, of course they need more helicopters… If there had been more, it is very likely that fewer soldiers would have been killed by roadside bombs’ (Daily Mail, 10 July 2009).
• Gen. Julian Thompson (Commander of 3 Commando Brigade during the Falklands War). ‘British forces need many, many more helicopters. We have been here before in Northern Ireland. In South Armagh we quickly established travelling by road was a cause of death. It is my belief this Government decided to get involved in Afghanistan but were not prepared to pay the price financially’ (The People, 12 July 2009).
• Brigadier Ed Butler (Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade in Helmand Province, 2006). ‘We have not become any more powerful even though we have put in more numbers because we, the UK military, within Helmand…have not put in sufficiently and proportionately more enablers for the numbers of troops we have got on the ground because our numbers of helicopters, information-gathering systems, have not grown at the same rate as our ground forces…If you look at the proportion between helicopters and ground forces in Northern Ireland, I think at one stage we had over 70 helicopters servicing 10,000, 12,000, 15,000 troops. You can do the maths yourselves of 8,000 troops and how many helicopters we have to service them’ (Evidence to the Defence Select Committee, 29 June 2009).
• Lt. Col. Stuart Tootal (Commander of 3 Para in Helmand Province, 2006). ‘In Afghanistan in 2006 repeated demands for more helicopters fell on deaf ears. It increased risk for my paratroopers, but the decision-makers were not the ones driving into combat when we should have been flying in. They were also not the ones who lay trapped in a minefield when two Black Hawk helicoptersthat would have made all the difference were not sent to us when they were needed’ (Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2008).

• Operation in Afghanistan. Since the beginning of July, British, American and Afghan soldiers are conducting a joint operation to clear the Taliban from an area north of Lashkar Gah and extend security to the area. This is the third wave of the Operation code-named ‘Panther’s Claw’ and has involved 3,000 British personnel.
• Elections. The country’s presidential election will be postponed from April to August. Mr Karzai's term has run out and he is staying on until the election is held. The last Presidential election was held in 2004.

Shortfalls

• Helicopter Shortfalls. There are serious problems with the number of helicopters available.
• Sea King: From the ‘departmental fleet’ 39 out of 95 are fit for purpose
• Merlins: From the ‘departmental fleet’  25 out of 70 are fit for purpose
• Chinooks: From the ‘departmental fleet’  18 out of 40 are fit for purpose
• Apache: From the ‘departmental fleet’ 16 out of 67 are fit for purpose
• Lynx: From the ‘departmental fleet’ 57 out of 176 are fit for purpose (Hansard, 22 June 2009, col. 626WA)

• Helicopter Cuts. The current state of affairs is the result of decisions made by Gordon Brown and the Government over several years. In 2004, the Government cut the projected 10-year future helicopter budget by £1.4 billion (House of Commons Library). Labour also cut the annual helicopter procurement budget from £842 million in 2001-2 to £209 million in 2006-7 (Hansard, 3 June 2009, Col. 552WA).
• Failure to Heed Warnings. The Government have been warned repeatedly about the shortfall in helicopters. In 2004, the National Audit Office warned, ‘there is a considerable deficit in the availability of helicopter lift’ (National Audit Office, Battlefield Helicopters, 7 April 2004, Session 2003-4, HC 486, para 4.2).
• Gordon Brown and Defence. The current controversy raises many questions about Gordon Brown’s commitment to defence.
• We are on our fourth defence secretary in four years.
• Defence procurement is shared by two unpaid ministers – Lord Drayson, who is also a Business Minister, and Quentin Davies.
• The Defence Secretary is ranked 21st out of 23 in the Cabinet.
• Mental Health. On 15 July, the Conservatives held an Armed Forces mental health summit. The summit included speeches from key ex-military figures and experts such as Andy McNab and Professor Simon Wessely from King’s College London. The Government has been criticised by the Defence Select Committee for not being proactive enough in tracking veterans after they left the Armed Forces and monitoring their mental health. The Committee said ‘the identification and treatment of veterans with mental health needs relies as much on good intentions and good luck as on robust tracking’ (House of Commons Defence Committee, Medical Care in the Armed Forces, 18 February 2008, Session 2007-8, HC 327, para 110).

The Labour line

• Increase in Helicopter Capability in Afghanistan. The Government claims that over the past two years there has been a 60 per cent increase in helicopter frames and an 84 per cent increase in helicopter flying hours (Hansard, 13 July 2009, Col.23).

Conservative response: Even with the increase in helicopter hours, because the number of troops has doubled (from around 4,700 in 2006 to 9,100 in 2009), there hasn’t been a proportional increase in helicopter capacity (Hansard, 26 January 2006, Cols.1531-2; Hansard, 22 July 2009, Col.22).

• International Helicopter Fund. A UK-French initiative was launched in March 2008 to encourage other nations to provide helicopters for operations in Afghanistan.

Conservative response: Helicopters from this initiative were meant to be deployed from September 2009. But this deadline will not be met. Three helicopters from this initiative will now be deployed ‘ from December’ (Hansard, 7 July 2009, Col. 657WA).

• Future Helicopter Effort. The Government says that it is transferring the Merlin helicopters from Iraq to Afghanistan. It is also upgrading 12 current Lynx helicopters and converting eight Chinook helicopters to operational standards.

This kind of work should have been conducted much earlier. The Chinooks have been sitting in hangars since 2001, and only one of them has been delivered. The remainder of these aircraft will not be ready until the end of the year, which is of little use to our troops currently in Afghanistan.

• Future Helicopter Procurement. The Government says it is investing £6 billion in future helicopter projects over the next 10 years and is procuring the Future Lynx (Wildcat) helicopter.

Conservative response: The Future Lynx will not enter service until 2014. In December 2008, the numbers on order were cut from 70 to 62 (Hansard, 12 January 2009, Col. 105WA).

• Vehicles. In his speech to Chatham House on 8 July, Bob Ainsworth said ‘every effort is being made to increase protection - such as the introduction of Mastiff and Ridgeback troop carriers, the improved armour on Viking and Jackal vehicles, and the more heavily armoured Warthog vehicles coming in 2010’.

Conservative response: The actions described should have been made far sooner. The delays in the delivery of key vehicles and helicopters can only exacerbate this situation. This state of affairs is the result of the Government’s consistent inability to plan for the future and its record on procurement.

The Lib Dem line

• Afghanistan. In an article in The Daily Telegraph, Nick Clegg said that ‘recent events have led me to question, for the first time, whether we’re going about things in the right way…We now need to ask whether the government has the will, strategy or tactics to do the job properly’ He also said, ‘if you send people to war you must supply the resources they need, or you should not send them at all’ (Daily Telegraph, 9 July 2009).

Conservative response. This is nothing new. We have been consistently commenting on the need for a political strategy to accompany any military increases, and the fact that our Armed Forces must have the equipment they need to do the job. We remain supportive of the mission.

Our Approach

• Criteria for Success. We have consistantly said that any additional troop increases must be accompanied by the following conditions: there must be a clear political strategy in place which includes Pakistan and renewed focus on governance on a local level in Afghanistan; the correct number of troops with the right equipment—including helicopters and armoured vehicles; renewed efforts to reduce corruption across Afghanistan; better burden sharing with our European allies within NATO, and  better coordination of international aid. This is the only way forward.

• Common NATO Operational Funding . We are concerned that some NATO partners are having difficulties in providing sufficient forces for Afghanistan. We would like to start a discussion on the idea of a common funding mechanism for operations which would enable the costs to be shared fairly. 

• Troops’ mental health . With the pace of current operations, there is a very real risk of an incipient mental health crisis amongst our veterans. We are not convinced that Labour are pro-active enough in tracking the mental health servicemen and women once they leave the services. A future Conservative Government would pilot a mental health triage service. This service will check and monitor the mental health of veterans after they have left the Armed Forces.

 Afghanistan FAQ